


scars

by yodalorian



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Childhood Friends, F/M, Growing Up, Healing, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28317261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yodalorian/pseuds/yodalorian
Summary: "She’d heard about scars like these, but only in rumors. Scars on the heart that were so painful that they manifested on the skin. Someone Zuko loved more than anything had abandoned him, rejected him."Katara meets a boy with a scar, and gets a scar of her own.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Kudos: 58
Collections: Gifts for Friends





	scars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gerudozelda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gerudozelda/gifts).



> for erin :)

She noticed him for the first time when they were twelve.

Sure, she’d seen him around before. A loose acquaintance. You got to know a lot of rich, stuffy kids at the academy where the leaders of the four nations sent their children to learn politics and diplomacy. But today, he really caught her eye. Maybe it was the way he was huddled in the corner, like a hermit crab scared of attack from all sides. 

“Is that...Zuko?” Katara whispered to her brother. “Why’s he alone?” Zuko wasn’t the popular kid, but he was never friendless either.

Sokka shrugged. “I dunno. Why do you care? Ignore him.”

Katara glared at Sokka and pointedly walked over to Zuko and sat next to him. “Hi.”

He jumped like she’d snuck up behind him. He turned towards her, and Katara gasped before she could stop herself. She realized why everyone else was avoiding him.

An awful scar had blossomed over the left side of his face, marring his skin with angry red destroyed flesh. It was so bad that it almost gave him a permanent scowl. This was too severe to be the result of physical injury. She’d heard about scars like these, but only in rumors. Scars on the heart that were so painful that they manifested on the skin. Someone Zuko loved more than anything had abandoned him,  _ rejected  _ him.

He glared at her like he expected her to run away screaming. Instead, Katara plastered on a smile and held out her hand. “Hi. I’m Katara.”

He looked at her hand like it was secretly filled with poison.

Awkwardly, Katara dropped it. “You’re Zuko, right?”

He nodded slightly and continued trying to shrink into his shirt like he was a turtle duck.

Well, none of this had gone as she expected. Still, Katara never backed down and she wasn’t going to now. She wanted desperately to ask about what could’ve created such a scar, the way horror breeds curiosity, but she realized how terribly insensitive that was. She had to find another conversation starter.

“Uh, who are your parents?”

He winced. Yikes. Had she stepped on another sore spot?

“Sorry, you don’t have to answer that.” Katara stumbled over her words. “It’s just that everyone here talks about whoever paid for them to come, but if you don’t want—“

“‘S okay,” Zuko mumbled. He hesitated. “My father’s just some minor Fire Nation noble. Barely important enough to get me in here.”

“Oh. Okay. My father’s Hakoda. Chief of the Southern Water Tribe.”

Zuko glanced at her. “You a princess, then?”

Katara snorted. “I never feel like one.” She realized Zuko was smiling a little. “Hey, you’re teasing me!”

His smile grew, and she laughed. From then on, Zuko and Katara were inseparable friends.

* * *

Zuko winced.

Katara frowned with concern. “Is your scar bothering you again?”

They were eighteen and sitting in the tiny grove behind the academy, where the afternoon sunlight turned golden. They discovered the spot when they were fourteen and it was now their secret. A place to laugh, a place to talk, a place for maybe something more. They’d gotten close a few times.

Zuko shook his head. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Stop being ridiculous.” She drew a stream from the bubbling creek nearby, droplets glowing on her fingertips. She leaned forward and gently brushed his scar with her fingers, letting the pale blue light seep into the damaged flesh. It was only enough to soothe the aching. She didn’t know if there was any way to heal that scar.

“Thank you,” Zuko whispered.

Katara leaned her head on his shoulder, watching insects flutter lazily through the tall grass. “Can you believe we graduate tomorrow?”

Zuko laughed softly. “Feels like I’ve been waiting for this day forever, but now that it’s here...feels like it went by too fast.”

“What are you gonna do next?”

Zuko glanced at her. “No, you first. What are you gonna do?”

Katara shrugged. “My dad has some upcoming talks with Omashu I want to go to. The fishermen along the South Pole’s eastern coast are pretty disgruntled too. Maybe I’ll go talk to them.”

When she looked at Zuko again, he was grinning stupidly. “What?” she demanded.

“No, it’s just...listen to yourself. Fresh out of school and you’re a diplomat and activist, ready to change the world. You’re amazing.”

Katara blushed. “Come on. I bet you have amazing things planned too.”

Zuko looked down at his hands. “No. Just a stupid military commission near Serpent’s Pass my father’s got lined up for me. Says it’s an honor, but I don’t know what kind of honor has to be forced on you.”

Katara frowned. “I thought all military positions in the Fire Nation were appointed by Fire Lord Ozai.” 

“Oh. Right.” Zuko turned bright red. “I just meant that, uh…” He nervously met her eyes. “I guess I should stop lying about my parents.”

He chewed his lip, worried that she was going to run off too after learning who his father really was. But Katara rested her hand on his arm. “Having Ozai for a father can’t be easy.”

“It’s not, but…” Zuko shook his head. “You can’t choose your family.” He sighed and looked up towards the sky, where the sun was dipping towards the horizon. “It’s getting late. I should be going.”

He got up, but Katara grabbed his hand. “Meet me here again tomorrow? One last time.”

He smiled. “We’re graduating, but it’s not goodbye forever.”

“It’s sort of goodbye. Our lives are going to be different after tomorrow.”

“Alright.” He pulled her towards himself and kissed her gently. “I’ll meet you here.”

Katara felt like she could have floated into the sky.

* * *

The next day, she sat in the grove for hours. He never appeared.

She wrote letter after letter to him. None of them were answered. 

She asked all of their classmates. Zuko had simply…vanished.

At night, she lay in bed, weeping. She bit her lip and held herself and tried not to scream as searing agony spread across her palms.

Then, the war began.

* * *

Zuko was twenty-eight and about to die.

At least it felt like it. He remembered vaguely fires, plumes of smoke, screaming, another battle he didn’t want to be a part of. At some point he had blacked out. 

And now he was...somewhere. He dimly saw a healer over him, her body covered entirely in dark clothing except for her eyes. That was typical of these battlefield healers. Wherever death went, disease followed.

But her eyes were bright blue. “You’re...Water Tribe,” Zuko croaked.

“You’re awake. Good,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I’m...your enemy.” Every breath hurt.

“I took an oath to save any life I could. Doesn’t matter where they were born.” She said it like that was somehow his fault, though. 

Moving decisively, she stripped off his undershirt. Zuko sucked in air through his teeth as the cold air hit his bloodied torso. Water streamed from a bowl nearby and settled over his chest, glowing. He could feel his skin begin to stitch itself together. There was something strangely familiar about her touch as her fingertips glided over his bare skin. 

“Don’t worry,” the healer said. “You’ll be fine. Not even scars.” Her eyes settled on the two scars he did have. “Not like those.”

“Thanks,” Zuko mumbled.

She turned away from him to prepare some bandages. “Mind telling me about them?”

Zuko snorted. He’d never told anyone about his scars, and now this stranger wanted him to. But her presence was oddly comforting. He’d almost died, what did it matter anymore?

He lightly touched the ruined flesh around his left eye. “My father. When I was twelve,” Zuko whispered. “I wanted more than anything to make him proud, but I...I could never be the perfect heir he wanted. So he cast me out of his sight. Disowned me in everything but title. That was the last time he spoke to me like I was anything more than a servant at best, and a stray dog at worst.”

The healer became very still, but remained silent.

Zuko’s hand moved down to his second scar, a starburst splayed out over his heart. “There was...a girl I knew. A Water Tribe girl. I think she was the only person who ever loved me. But I broke her heart, and I broke mine too.”

“Why?” The healer’s voice was suddenly tight.

“I didn’t realize how far my father’s delusions of conquest had gone. He declared war, and she was suddenly my sworn enemy. And I was forbidden from ever seeing her again.”

The healer moved closer to him, but Zuko still stared up at the ceiling, lost in memories and regrets. “Do you still think about her?” she asked.

“Every waking moment of my life.”

“Do you think she has scars too?”

“I hope not.” Zuko wasn’t sure if he could ever forgive herself if he had hurt Katara like that.

“You hoped wrong then, Zuko.” He looked at her and saw that her eyes glimmered with tears. She pulled the cloth away from her mouth, revealing the face he had longed to see for a decade.

“Katara,” Zuko breathed, almost reverently.

Her gloves were off too. She traced the scar on his chest with her fingers. Zuko took her hand in his and saw that they were marked, as if they had been burned.

“I knew someone too,” Katara said quietly. “A boy with fire in his spirit. My brother warned me to stay away. Said I’d get burned if I got too close.” She drew in a shaky breath. “But I only got burned when he left.”

Zuko kissed her scars, his tears dripping onto her fingers. “I’m so, so sorry, Katara.”

“Don’t be. I don’t think any of us can make it through life without some scars. But being with you again...makes the pain worth it.” She leaned down and kissed him.

In that moment, Zuko wanted to imagine they were eighteen and carefree again. But that was impossible. Too much had happened. Both carried scars now. But even if scars never quite healed, even if they would both carry the marks of their past forever, sometimes they stopped hurting quite so much.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


End file.
